The Deafening Sound of Humility
1 Peter 3:9-11 Don’t do wrong to anyone to pay them back for doing wrong to you. Or don’t insult anyone to pay them back for insulting you. But ask God to bless them. Do this because you yourselves were chosen to receive a blessing. The Scriptures say, “If you want to enjoy true life and have only good days, then avoid saying anything hurtful, and never let a lie come out of your mouth. Stop doing what is wrong, and do good.
Most days, I make sure that I read the news – local, national and international. I also make sure that I read God’s Word, the Bible. And I tell you, the gap between those two is growing wider by the day.
Twentieth-century theologian, Carl Barth, encouraged his students to have a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. It’s good advice. It’s about hearing from God and understanding what’s going on in the world. But can I be honest? Some days I get so angry at what I read in the news. How can people behave like that? How can they be so stupid? How can they be so evil?
And what we Christians like to call “righteous anger” rises up in my heart. What I really want to do is give them a piece of my mind – something that’s so easy to do these days with social media at our fingertips. But is that really what God wants us to do?
1 Peter 3:9-11 Don’t do wrong to anyone to pay them back for doing wrong to you. Or don’t insult anyone to pay them back for insulting you. But ask God to bless them. Do this because you yourselves were chosen to receive a blessing. The Scriptures say, “If you want to enjoy true life and have only good days, then avoid saying anything hurtful, and never let a lie come out of your mouth. Stop doing what is wrong, and do good.
Peter’s writing here to Christians who were being horribly persecuted. And what he’s talking about, in a nutshell, is humility. Yes, there are times when we need to speak up, absolutely. But the sound of humility in this clamorous, opinionated world, let me tell you, is deafening.
Don’t insult anyone to pay them back for insulting you.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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